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She moved past the building and into open ground. This was the tricky bit.
“Clear?” she sent the query to her psy-hawk, Hera.
Once again, the hawk sent her an image of the camp. No one was around. Rin broke into a jog and made for the trees that ringed the camp. The skin on the back of her neck itched, and she felt unsettled and vulnerable. Ten meters to the tree line. Seven. Five. She broke into a sprint for the last few steps, flinging herself into the relative safety and concealment of the woods.
She made it!
Rin pushed deeper into the forest, not stopping until she was sure she was safe from detection. The guards sometimes used infrared goggles to scan the woods, looking for heat sources. So far, they’d only seen a few small animals and one large predator that vanished before they could identify it. The predator sighting was why she’d been ordered not to leave camp without an armed escort.
The problem was, the presence of the soldiers unsettled her subjects and made it impossible for her to record their natural behavior. The psy-hawks actively avoided the soldiers and wanted nothing to do with them.
She felt exactly the same way.
Certain she was in the clear, she signaled Hera to start phase two. A few seconds later, the large, bronze-colored bird sent a visual from her perspective as she flew down from her perch and soared through the window Rin had deliberately left open in the mews earlier that day.
The hawk sent her a series of images as she moved from cage to cage, helping the occupants to free themselves. No one but her knew the animals had taught themselves that little trick. The hawks kept their intelligence carefully hidden from everyone but her.
The IAF had no idea why these birds had been created in the first place, and Rin had done what she could to convince them that their existence was a vanity project by an amoral scientist who developed the creatures for no other reason than because he could.
She suspected the truth was far grimmer and fit perfectly into the military’s plans for the hawks—plans she never wanted to come to fruition.
In less than two minutes, all the subjects were free and airborne. Hera sent her a flash of pure joy tinged with mischief at their successful escape. Her bond to the psy-hawk had been a surprise to everyone, including Rin. Before Rin’s arrival, the team studying the hawks all experienced moments of telepathic contact with the animals. The contact had all been negative, though, with the hawks using their abilities to warn the humans to stay away.
Rin’s connection to Hera was much deeper and flowed both ways. She and the hawk could communicate back and forth via a combination of emotions, images, and words.
When Hera allowed it, Rin could even use their link to tap into the hawk’s eyes and ears. Hera’s senses were far more acute than her own, and while Hera couldn’t understand most human speech, Rin could. Anything Hera saw or heard could be shared with Rin. That’s when she realized why the psy-hawks had been created. They were natural spies.
She hadn’t shared that information with the military, who claimed ownership of the animals. If they knew their value, Hera and the others would never be freed.
It was another reason she’d worked so hard to convince the oversight committee to allow her to come to Liberty. If the birds chose to bond with other beings while rejecting all military companions, maybe the IAF would lose interest in the project. She just needed to make sure no one figured out their real value until it was too late. Haven colony had been formed to offer a sanctuary to Vardarians looking for a new start and a number of cyborgs that needed a home and a place to heal. She hoped it could be a haven for her hawks, too.
She met the birds in the clearing she’d spotted from the air a few days earlier. The hawks needed daily exercise, and she’d managed to convince Douglas to let her use one of the hover-bikes so she could keep up with them as they flew. He’d insisted on sending two men with her on every flight to “protect her from threats.” She knew it was bullshit. He saddled her with guards for the same reason he did everything else, to remind everyone around him that he was in charge.
The clearing was perfect for their needs. Lush grass and flowers came almost to her waist, and she was certain squeakers and other small prey animals would be hidden in the deep grass. Hera had made it clear that the birds wanted time to hunt and enjoy themselves without any soldiers around. Rin had agreed, mostly so she could study the birds without interference and partly to get away from Douglas and his men.
By the time she caught up to the hawks, one of them was already eating something small and furry. The others circled overhead, waiting for their turn to strike.
Rin set up a recording device and hung it on a branch so it had a clear view of the area. Then she leaned against the tree, which grew at the edge of the meadow, and got to work. She used the device to dictate her thoughts as she observed her subjects hunt, play, and interact with each other in the real world instead of the cages where they spent too much of their lives.
This was a huge step for her research. Next, she had to figure out a way to bring them into contact with the citizens of Haven. Since she couldn’t leave camp without an escort and the men weren’t allowed to enter the colony, she had no idea how the fraxx to make that happen.
2
As much as he loved spending time in the outdoors, Axe was more than ready to get home. He wanted a meal cooked by a food dispenser instead of over an open fire, a chance to get good and clean again, and then a good night’s sleep in a bed.
“Some battle-hardened cyborg I am. A year living free, and I’ve gone softer than a peskin’s pelt,” he muttered to himself. He’d been a scout during the Resource Wars. Living rough for weeks on end, always on the move through enemy territory. Back then, he’d never known the simple pleasures of good food, a warm bed, and a gloriously hot bath. Now he knew what comfort was, he missed it if he was away from home too long.
At least he wasn’t as soft as most of his cyborg brethren. They lived in town now, ensconced in homes that seemed like palaces after the brutal conditions they’d endured as test subjects at Reamus Research Station. The corporations’ former elite combat troops were now well-fed, educated, and content in ways that worried him. If they ever had to defend their new home, would the younger ones know what to do? Most of them had been created after the war and spent their entire lives as captives until they’d been brought to this place. The only combat they’d seen was against each other, leaving them with scars on their bodies and their psyches.
The Vardarians would fight, of course. Their culture placed a high value on martial skills and training. He attended one of their practice arenas regularly to hone his skills and learn new ones, though he was always careful to pick opponents he knew and trusted. He might not have many friends, but he didn’t want to put those he did have in jeopardy by injuring someone.
It was best for everyone if he kept to himself most of the time. His creators had designed him to be a solo operator. He couldn’t change who he was or what he’d been made for. It was better for everyone if he was left alone.
That’s why he’d signed on with the rangers. They patrolled the wilds around the colony, updated maps, identified wildlife, and safeguarded Haven against threats of all kinds. They’d been the first to document the existence of the kopaki—a tunneling predator that could travel through hard dirt and even concrete to get to their prey. The creatures didn’t often hunt in the woods around the colony, though. This was ghost cat territory. That was one of the things he liked about the natural world. Each species had its place. If left alone, they stayed in balance with each other.
That thought was chased out of his head by a flash of a golden-brown something darting through the air overhead. He only got a glimpse of it before it was gone, hidden by the canopy of leaves overhead. A single glimpse was enough for him to know that whatever he’d seen didn’t belong here.
Axe shifted directions. Instead of heading toward his cabin near the river, he reoriented himself to follow the flight of the unknown animal. This planet was rich with life of all shapes and sizes, but large birds weren’t part of the local ecosystem. At least, not that anyone had found so far. Either this creature had literally and figuratively managed to fly under their radar for more than a year, or something odd was going on.
